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EXISTING
guidelines ensuring the safety of bank premises for both
employees and the banking public have been declared
inadequate by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
“They
are now being discussed and are under review,” BSP
Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said on Friday.
The
review on the safety of bank premises came on the heels
of the horrendous robbery at the Cabuyao, Laguna, branch
of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. in May in which 10
people, mostly bank personnel, were killed.
Tetangco
declined to say which of a number of security measures
have been found wanting, beyond saying the review was
comprehensive.
Bank
branches, especially those located in so-called
high-risk areas, are encouraged to put up closed-circuit
television units as a security measure. It is not,
however, mandatory like the fire extinguisher.
The RCBC
branch, where bank employees were killed, had no such
equipment.
The
police considered the incident the worst bank robbery in
memory. They noted the bank branch had an alarm system
that did not work.
Regulations also require banks to install time-delay
locks on their vaults in response to an earlier series
of bank heists that made the ordinary act of going to
the bank a hazardous exercise.
Time-delay mechanisms were supposed to discourage bank
robbers as the vault will open only at preset times of
the day, according to the BSP.
Tetangco
also declined to say how extensive the discussions and
the safety recommendations had been.
He said
the new guidelines should soon be out upon approval by
the seven-man Monetary Board. Tetangco heads the
policymaking board. |
